Report on TN phone tapping row submitted

A seemingly ordinary conversation between Chief Secretary L K Tripathy and Chief Vigilance Commissioner S K Upadhyay was published by an English daily here in April, along with the report that the phones of several leaders were being tapped by the state.

In the recorded conversation, the officials were heard discussing a case related to the Kodanadu Estate owned by Opposition leader J Jayalalithaa.

Some of the numbers that the daily claimed were being tapped included that of PMK founder and staunch DMK baiter S Ramadoss, senior journalists and academicians. Ramadoss took up the issue and had raised the allegation against the state Government several times in the past.

In the meanwhile, Janata Party president Subramaniam Swamy came out with a tape that had the conversation between then Social Welfare Minister Dr Poongothai Aladi Aruna and Upadhyay, in which the Minister was heard asking the official to go easy on her relative who was caught in a bribery case.

Admitting that it was indeed her voice, Poongothai tendered resignation after the incident, while the Government forwarded the case to the same commission.

Though the details of the report are not known, it is learnt that the Vigilance office was the source of the leak.